Batteries are a widely used means for storing electric energy. At present, many instruments, electronic equipment, industrial equipment, automobiles, and more use batteries for their power supplies. However, electric energy stored in a single battery cell is often limited, and thus a battery system containing a plurality of battery modules is typically used to power an automobile or a device of larger power consumption. A battery module can be a single battery cell or a component that is severable from the battery system and can be individually unloaded, loaded, and replaced.
For example, shown in FIG. 1 is a battery system containing a plurality of battery modules. The battery modules in this battery system are arranged in m rows and n columns, so the number of the battery modules is m×n. Due to the size limitation of the battery modules, the electric energy stored in each battery module is limited; hence the battery modules in use would be quickly depleted and need frequent recharging or replacement. Charging and replacing battery modules bring about the following challenges.
First, the battery modules in a battery system are usually housed in a secured container. During the charging of the battery modules, a specialized electrical cable is often needed to connect the battery modules to some battery-charging equipment. In a battery system for automobiles, the connectors of the battery modules and the charging equipment are often specially engineered or custom-made. In certain complex cases, probably only trained personnel can use the electrical cables properly to make the proper connection between the battery modules and the charging equipment. Also, this cable connection task is often laborious and time consuming, making battery module charging exceedingly inconvenient.
Second, the battery system container is to house the plurality of battery modules and yet is often provided with only one small opening for battery module loading and unloading. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the opening for loading and unloading of battery modules is located on the top of the battery system container, making the unloading and loading of the battery modules located at the bottom of the container quite difficult, especially for the last row of battery modules (e.g. [m, 1], [m, 2], . . . ).
Lastly, in some battery systems, battery modules can only be recharged after being unloaded from their battery systems. As the battery modules are usually heavy, the unloading and loading of battery modules may require much manual labor, in turn resulting in low efficiency in the unloading and reloading of the battery modules. In particular, for example, the battery modules located at the bottom of the container in FIG. 1 are difficult to unload and reload, leading to low efficiency in and excessive manual labor for the recharging of the battery system.
If one chooses to replace the battery modules in a battery system, one needs to unload all the battery modules to be replaced in the battery system one by one, and then reload the replacement battery modules at the corresponding positions one by one. This obviously also requires much manual labor, especially in cases where the battery modules to replace are located at the bottom of a container such as that shown in FIG. 1.